PEQAP: Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance Program

Eggs produced by Kreider Farms are on the PEQAP program, a voluntary industry program intended to minimize Salmonella enteritidis (SE) contamination in chicken (shell) eggs. Although this program does not guarantee shell eggs to be free of SE contamination, the program does assure commitment of the producer and processor to implementation of those management and monitoring practices most likely to prevent SE contamination. Participating producers and processors who participate in PEQAP are: Demonstrating their concern for food safety. Producing a quality egg, which helps to assure consumer confidence in eggs. Addressing the demands of buyers for eggs produced in a food safety program. Reducing potential foodborne illness liability claims.

What Regulatory Officials Say About PEQAP

In a 15 member Review Team Report by the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the United States Department of Agriculture dated January 18, 1997, it was stated: “PEQAP can serve as a prototype for the egg industry in the development of egg quality assurance programs and the industry should adopt quality assurance programs based on interventions developed in the Pennsylvania Pilot Project and used in the Pennsylvania Egg Quality Assurance Program (PEQAP).”

SQF

In 2009, Kreider Farms became the second egg producer in the United States to achieve SQF certification and the only egg producer east of the Mississippi to achieve SQF certification. For more information about SQF, click on the SQF Logo.